Completely covered in pebbles (of course) and perched on the Devon coast somewhere between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth lies Slapton Sands. A lovely long sharply sloping beach, it is an ideal place for long wind swept walks before stumbling into the Start Bay Inn.
Most famous for the site of the ill-fated Exercise Tiger in 1944, which was a pre-Normandy landing exercise that went woefully wrong when a couple of E-boats stumbled across the massed drill. A Sherman tank that was sunk in this action has been recovered and now stands on the road behind the beach as a memorial to the 600+ american soldiers killed.
Behind the beach is Slapton Ley, a nature reserve and a few miles up the road was a tiny little art gallery run by Broady a very cool surfer/artist (now living in Dartmouth). Bits of Broady's stuff seems to be in every room in the house over here as a gentle reminder of the beauty of South Devon.
Funnily enough whilst checking on the date of Exercise Tiger I discovered that apparently the eastern mile of the beach from the car park is generally regarded as one of the most attractive nudist beaches in England. All the times I went there and never knew that. Mind you it always was bloody chilly!
No comments:
Post a Comment